1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of textiles, more particularly to the field of stapilizing. The process and apparatus of the present invention use lateral deflection of a filament under tension with or without the presence of a shearing edge in order to form a "staple-like" twisted continuous filament yarn. The process utilizes barbed needling in order to apply tension forces to the filaments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Applicant is aware of several U.S. patents that are related to the present invention, including: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,542,632; 4,054,025; 4,145,870 and 4,297,837. Of these related patents, applicant believes U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,632 to be worthy of some discussion in order to distinguish Applicant's invention therefrom. Applicant believes the remainder of the art to be too distant from the present invention to be worthy of any detailed discussion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,632 describes the use of barbed needles to fibrillate polyolefin ribbon yarns which have been woven into fabrics, in order that the fabrics take on:
". . . a hand and appearance similar to that of a fabric woven of natural fiber . . ." (claim 1, lines 2-4).
Applicant's invention differs from this patent in that Applicant is disclosing a process and apparatus for "stapilizing", not fibrillating. In other words, Applicant's invention utilizes barbed needles to break filaments across the longitudinal axis of the filaments whereas U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,632 describes the use of these barbed needles to split a ribbon yarn lengthwise. Furthermore, Applicant's invention pertains to twisted continuous filament yarns, whereas the reference pertains to ribbon yarns.